Book Trailer and Media Coverage

About the Series

CRASH, BOOM, POP!: Money & Economics Exposed is a tongue-in-cheek graphic novel or cartoon book series by Genevieve Tran, Miguel Guerra and Suzy Dias, created with the help of economist Steve Keen, author of "Debunking Economics". We literally illustrate the alternative in a fact based comic book series that uses humor to challenge the mainstream. We want reading about economics and money to be as easy as reading comic books.

Too many of us are living paycheck to paycheck. Income inequality is a worldwide problem. Students are graduating with record debts. Trillion dollar wars are charged to the national credit card of debt. We’re inheriting economies in crisis, yet less than half of all U.S. high schools require any kind of economics or finance courses in order to graduate.

There'a a growing eagerness to learn more about the economy. How do we know? In October 2014, we launched a successful campaign and raised over $35,000! We are humbled and working hard to create something meaningful and witty that will spark discussions and imaginations. Click here to watch our Kickstarter video.

CRASH, BOOM, POP! aims to help lay a good foundation in economics. We want to expose how money and economics actually work, without the complicated rhetoric. Everyday questions that befuddle our brains like: How is money created? Why do housing prices keep rising? Why are interest rates at all time lows (even if your credit card interest may not be)? What’s the purpose of austerity? Why do central banks, like the Federal Reserve, continue printing more currency?

These are baffling questions for many...including actual economists! Yes, that’s right. Much of what economists actually believe - and teach in their incredibly boring textbooks - is wrong.

Take the question of how money is created. Ever heard of the “Money Multiplier”? It’s so mainstream that in 2009, President Obama used it in a speech to justify giving the banks a bailout instead of families and businesses:

“there are a lot of Americans who understandably think that government money would be better spent going directly to families and businesses instead of banks – ‘where’s our bailout?,’ they ask”.

..the truth is that a dollar of capital in a bank can actually result in eight or ten dollars of loans to families and businesses, a multiplier effect that can ultimately lead to a faster pace of economic growth."

Great idea...only it’s wrong. That’s not how money is really created. The Bank of England recently admitted as much:

"This description of how money is created differs from the story found in some economics textbooks. For instance, in normal times, the central bank does not in practice choose the amount of money in circulation. Nor is central bank money ‘multiplied up’ into more loans and deposits. Rather, the Bank of England implements monetary policy – which is set to be consistent with low and stable inflation – by setting the interest rate on central bank reserves (‘Bank Rate’). This then influences a range of interest rates – including those on bank loans – and, in turn, the aggregate amount of spending in the economy."http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Pages/news/2014/051.aspx

Confused? So were we. Then we read some books that cut through the confusion: Steve Keen’s “Debunking Economics”, Ann Pettifor’s "Just Money - How to Break the Despotic Power of Finance" and Ha-Joon Chang's "23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism", just to name a few.

As a team with a background in finance, education and economics, we did our best to digest all of this information for you. Now we want to share what we’ve learned.

Our mentor and muse is Professor Steve Keen, Head of the School of Economics, Politics and History at Kingston University London, founder of the Minsky open source economic simulator (which was successfully funded on Kickstarter), and author of the bestselling, “Debunking Economics”. For more information on Steve, click here.

About the Book

CRASH, BOOM, POP! is a graphic book series with five volumes: Money, Mico, Macro, Mayhem and Method.Each will be a perfect bound graphic novel, with a final size of 6.75” x 10.5” (17.15 cm x 26.67 cm) in full color, and printed on thick, high quality paper.

Volume 1: MONEY will have 96+ full color pages, with an estimated publication date of October 2015.

Tax Deductible Donation (in the U.S.)

If you would like to help with the creation and publishing of our graphic novel series, please click here.

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